Celine
by lastraider
Summary: An exploration of who Celine might be. The story focuses on Aidan.


Disclaimer: Not mine.

Notes: Being Human US Version. A story playing around with the idea of who 'Celine' might actually be. There will be mentions of Aidan/OC, Bishop/OC, Aidan/Bishop/OC, Aidan/Bishop, Aidan/Rebecca and I think that's it, basically lots of mentions of horny vampires. Starts during episode 4 and jumps a bit after that. The story mostly focuses on Aidan.

* * *

"Who's Celine?"

Rebecca asks it in such an off hand way that at first Aidan isn't even completely sure he heard her right. They're lying on the floor of the motel bathroom covered in blood and various other fluids. It had been years that Aidan had had sex with that kind of intensity, that burning desire to completely consume the other person. He was still trying to collect himself but after a few minutes the question sunk in. It was the same question Garrity had asked him in that bar bathroom but at the time Aidan hadn't even considered answering.

Turning his head he looked down at Rebecca. She was staring up at him tracing her fingers over the tattoo on his chest. Reaching up a hand Aidan curled his fingers around Rebecca's before pulling her hand away from his chest. Rebecca gave him a confused look but he turned his face away from her. She was asking a question that didn't have a simple answer. Telling Rebecca who Celine was would be opening up a Pandora's box of stories and questions that he simply did not want to think about.

Aidan closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the bathroom wall. Rebecca yanked her fingers out of his hand and poked him in the chest.

"Hey! Are you going to answer my question?" Curling her fingers Rebecca dug her nails into his chest trying to get his attention.

Aidan's eyes snapped open and he glared down at her. "What the hell?"

Pushing her away Aidan scooted a few feet across the floor. Rebecca lay against the tub glaring at him with her eyes frequently drifting towards the tattoo just over his right nipple. Throwing Rebecca one last angry look Aidan pushed himself off the floor. Grabbing a towel he turned on the sink and began to wash the blood off his body in a hurried manner. He needed to get clean.

Rebecca growled at him from the floor. Aidan ignored her and kept washing himself. As he wiped the cloth over his face he felt his mind drift.

* * *

_Aidan felt his eyes fly open. He panted, trying to draw air into his lungs but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get a deep enough breathe. His hands came up to grab at his chest but he couldn't feel his heart beat. Feeling himself begin to panic he struggled around in the bodies he was lain in. The last thing he remembered before this was the man with the black eyes biting into his neck. With a shout Aidan pushed away from the slippery bodies underneath him. He stumbled out of the mass of dead men feeling completely lost. A hand tapped him gently on the shoulder and Aidan spun around falling back into the corpses. _

_Standing behind him was a young woman in a plain red dress and blond hair. Around her neck was a black and red cord holding a locket. She smiled sweetly at him and stretched out a hand to him. _

"_It's alright, I won't hurt you." Her voice was soft and reassuring. _

_Aiden stretched up his own hand and laid it in hers. She wrapped her fingers around his hand and pulled him up to a standing position. There was a surprising amount of strength in her thin limbs. When he was finally standing Aidan glanced over the woman's shoulder and saw the man from before lurking a few feet behind her. Aidan went to pull away but the woman kept his hand gripped tightly in her eyes._

"_Shhh, don't be frightened now. You're one of us now, you're family."_

_Aidan could feel himself wanting to recoil in horror as the woman's eyes flashed back and her fangs slid out with a sharp clicking sound._

"_And we always take care of our family." The woman pulled Aidan towards her. She reached up her free hand and began to stroke the cloth over his face cleaning the dirt away._

"_Who are you?" Aidan asked his voice shaky as he turned his cheek into the cloth._

"_I'm Celine."_

_

* * *

_

With a shaking hand Aidan ran the washcloth down the side of his face washing away the last of the blood. Rebecca was still glaring at him from the floor. Tossing the washcloth into the basin Aidan stomped out of the bathroom to go get dressed.

That night when Aidan lay in his bed, back at the house, he dreamed of Celine again. He dreamt of the way she held him in her arms after he had killed his family, the way she stroked his hair as he sobbed bloody tears. Bishop was always there lurking in the background. He was the one who had taught Aidan how to survive as a vampire, how to kill, how to be a monster. Celine though, she had taken care of him, she had been the one who had reminded him that even after he tore out someone's throat he could still smile and laugh.

It used to make him jealous when he watched Celine and Bishop curl around each other. The way they would hold each other after sex, even if Aidan were still in the bed. He remembered the way Bishop would kiss her temple and murmur to her softly. The way she would run her fingers through Bishop's hair and coo at him in French. It was in those moments that Aidan remembered he was merely an accessory to their existence. It was in those moments that he had hated them and wanted to leave.

That was part of what kept pulling him back to Rebecca. Sometimes when he looked at her he though for a moment that they might be able to have that. It was a fantasy though. Rebecca didn't want the same things and he was deluding himself. He could never have what it was that Celine and Bishop had together or what he thought their relationship had been. If Celine leaving had taught him anything it was that all relationships are flawed. That had been the final straw. When she had turned her back on their family and walked away without even a word as to why.

Aidan remembered that day clearly. They had all gone to bed together with Celine curled between him and Bishop. When they had woken the next morning she wasn't in bed. They had thought she had just stepped out but then they began to notice little things. Some of her stuff was gone, some of their various personal mementoes were missing and that's when they began to search. They searched for almost a year and they never found her. Aidan had wanted to go on, to keep searching but Bishop had refused to keep looking. Bishop who had cried out like an animal when he thought no one was around.

Aidan had stood outside of the house all day, keeping the others out, while Bishop worked out his grief. The next morning Bishop had told Aidan that she was never going to be spoken of again. Celine had left them and in Bishop's eyes she was dead. Sighing Aidan forced himself to climb out of bed. He wasn't going to sleep tonight. He was haunted by her specter, the memory of yellow and red wrapping around each other.

* * *

A few weeks later Aidan was sitting at the kitchen table flipping through the newspaper when Josh came stomping in. He was waving the mail around. Aidan barely noticed when Josh tossed an envelope down in front of him. It was one of those padded envelopes that are just big enough to hold a DVD case. Josh collapsing noisily into the chair next to him finally made Aidan look up. He blinked in confusion at the envelope in front of him. Setting aside the envelope he lifted it up to his nose sniffing at it. There was the barest hint of a familiar scent, like vanilla mixed with jasmine. For a moment Aidan's eyes widened.

Turning it over Aidan opened up the side and watched as an object slightly smaller than a postcard slid out of the envelope and landed on the table. Josh just stared at him in confusion as Sally began to pace around waiting for him to pick it. With a shaking hand Aidan picked it up. It was a small gilt picture frame with worn velvet backing. Turning it over Aidan stared at the image contained within the decorated oval. It was a daguerreotype. They had taken it before Aidan had left to fight in the civil war. They were sitting like a family with Bishop and Aidan sharing a bench and Celine perched in Bishop's lap. Celine's eyes stared out at him even though the image had become speckled and faded with time. Sally speaking broke Aidan's concentration and pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Wow, is that you?" Sally leaned around Aidan trying to get a closer look at the picture.

"Hey! Isn't that the cop guy?" Josh was leaning in pointing at Bishop's face.

Aidan looked over at his roommates and nodded, "Yeah, that's the cop."

"Who's the girl?" Sally was gesturing at Celine's face but Aidan just snatched the photo away from her gaze.

He shoved the picture frame back into the envelope. Clearly this was Marcus or maybe even Bishop screwing at him. Their way of reminding him about how they felt about deserters.

"She's no one. It's nothing." Aidan pushed away from the table and hurried upstairs. He shoved the picture into a drawer wanting to keep it hidden, to forget about it.

* * *

It didn't stop with one picture though. Once a week, there was never much of a pattern to the days, envelopes of varying sizes would show up. The only thing that linked them was that they all contained little mementoes. Pictures of Aidan, Bishop and Celine or some combination of the three, little notes and letters they had written to each other over the years, small gifts purchased or stolen for one another. All these small things that represented the life they had shared together. Every time he got one Aidan hid it from the others and carefully tucked it away with the rest of the items he had received.

By the time they had gone up to Josh's parents house Aidan almost had an entire drawer full of these treasures. Sometimes Aidan would sit in his room and stare at them. The memories would wash over him and he would find himself getting lost in the dichotomy of his own mind. The contradiction that existed between the blood they had spilled and the love they had shared. He remembered how the violence had intermingled with sex and comfort. It had become almost like a high until one day it all came crashing down.

Aidan slammed the drawer shut and curled his hands around the wood willing himself to stop looking at the contents. He couldn't take this anymore. Yanking the drawer out he carried it over to a chest he had with a lock on it. It was one of those cheep chests they sold at stores for college students to keep possessions in when they lived in dorms. Opening it up he dumped the contents of the drawer inside and snapped the lock on. He didn't know the combination. He knew it was a pointless exercise. If he really wanted back into the chest he could just rip the lock off but he hoped the lock would act as enough of a deterrent.

* * *

After that it only got worse. Aidan started to see her. He would be in the hospital and he would see a woman in a red coat standing in hallways, outside the hospital, sometimes he even swore he saw her across the street from his house. He knew it was his mind playing tricks on him because she was wearing red. She only ever wore red when she was trying to butter Bishop up.

Aidan had asked it about her once and she had told him with a laugh that it was James favorite color on her. She had whispered to him that she had been wearing red the night he made her and that he loved to see her bathed in the color. Her James loved seeing her covered in red. James. She had only ever called him Bishop when she was upset with him. Otherwise it was always James, darling James, my sweet James, an endless parade of James.

He could feel the desperation growing in his chest. Aidan didn't know how much longer he could handle being haunted by this own mind. Celine was becoming like a bad penny that just kept turning up. Every time he thought he locked her away she just kept turning up. Leaning over a sink in the bathroom Aidan turned on the taps. Cupping his hands under the running water he let them fill before splashing his face.

Pausing he let the water run down his face before he repeated the motion over and over again until he finally started to feel a bit clean. Straightening up he stared into his reflection in the mirror, his hands curled tightly around the porcelain sink. A few mementoes shouldn't be doing this to him. Random pictures and little objects should not be driving him to this kind of desperation.

Tapping his fingers on the edge Aidan tried to think of who could possibly stand to gain from tormenting him like this. Then it him, Bishop. The only person who knew, who had that stuff, who would want him to remember her. Aidan knew Bishop blamed him for Celine leaving. He had never said it but Aidan could tell. He had seen it in the little things that Bishop had done since she had left. Now Bishop had finally decided to punish him for it.

Growling Aidan pushed away from the sink. He wasn't going to stand for it.

* * *

Aidan stormed into the funeral home carrying a cardboard box filled with the all the little objects he had received in the mail. Marcus shouted at him as he passed by the front desk. Aidan ignored the other vampire instead choosing to stomp down into the basement where Bishop kept his office. Bishop was predictably sitting at the desk working. Rebecca was lurking waiting for Bishop to recognize her. Briefly Aidan flashed on when that had been him. When he had hung onto every word that had dripped from Bishop's lips.

Growling Aidan tipped over the box and dumped its contents onto the floor. He winced when he heard the glass on the daguerreotype cracked. Tossing the cardboard box away Aidan ignored the little part of him that was shouting at him to stop. All his self-preservation instincts were calling out to him to stop before Bishop ripped his head off.

"Is this your idea of a game?" Aidan ground out as he gestured at the pile on the floor. "If this is your latest ploy to remind me of familial loyalty you are definitely barking up the wrong tree."

Behind him there was the sound of Marcus coming down the stairs but Aidan ignored him.

Bishop rose from his chair very slowly. There was a strange look in his eyes that Aidan couldn't quite identify. He walked over to look at what was lying on the floor. Kneeling down Bishop picked up the daguerreotype and shook the broken glass away. He stared at the picture for a moment.

"Marcus, I want you to take Rebecca and go upstairs. This is a conversation Aidan and I need to have in private." Bishop rose and cupped the picture in his hands.

Rebecca looked between the men in the room feeling confused. Marcus hurried over and grabbed Rebecca by the arm. He started to yank her towards the stairs but she refused to go quietly. She fought against Marcus and strained to see what was on the floor. Bishop looked up and for a moment growled at her. That seemed to quiet Rebecca and she allowed Marcus to haul her up the stairs.

When they were both gone Bishop slowly began to pace around the pile on the floor. He tapped the little picture frame against his hand. Aidan watched him like one dog watches another dog. He was sizing him up for a fight. Bishop walked over to his desk and laid the picture very carefully down on the desktop. Turning back around he walked towards Aidan.

"You remember that when she left she took a certain number of things with her," Bishop spoke very carefully not using her name.

Aidan nodded and for a moment he felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. The temperature in the room seemed to drop as Bishop moved towards him. Aidan almost didn't see it, Bishop's hand shooting out to grab a nearby shovel and slamming it into his head. With a sickening thud Aidan hit the ground. Pain shot through his entire body as he felt his jaw break. In an instant Bishop was standing over him holding the shovel and growling, his eyes black and his fangs out.

"How dare you! How dare you come into my house and shove that," Bishop gestured at all the little mementoes of Celine. "In my face. Who do you think you are?"

Raising the shovel over his head Bishop brought it down slamming the handle end into Aidan's chest and cracking his ribs. Aidan let out a soft groan of pain and coughed up some blood. He could feel the blood from his broken jaw and punctured lungs trailing down his chin mixed in with the spit from his mouth.

"Mail," Aidan wheezed out not sure if he was capable of full sentences. The last time Bishop had beat on him had been love taps compared to this.

"What was that? I don't think I heard you," Bishop kicked Aidan sharply in the side.

Aidan let out a groan and spat blood onto the concrete underneath him, "They came in the mail."

Bishop stared down at Aidan for a moment before casually tossing aside the shovel. He went over and picked up the cardboard box from earlier. With almost religious reverence Bishop began to pick up each item and carefully place it in the box. Aidan watched from his prone position on the floor blood running into his eyes.

"I don't want to see you until you feel like apologizing for this," Bishop said it in that chiding, fatherly voice of his, the one that always rubbed Aidan the wrong way.

Picking up the box Bishop walked over to the desk and slipped the photograph into the box. Without another word Bishop disappeared back into some private room of his. Groaning Aidan rolled over and pushed himself slowly off the floor.

* * *

Aidan managed to stumble his way back to the front steps of the house. He paused at the bottom smelling fresh blood. Lifting his head he stared up at a small figure curled up at the top of the stairs. It had blond hair stained with blood and dirty jeans. When it lifted his head Aidan almost gasped. He probably would have if his lungs weren't still healing.

"Celine," He breathed out the word and blood burst from between his broken lips. Aidan coughed weakly and stared up at the figure sitting at the top of the steps.

"Hello my darling boy, are you going to invite me in?"

* * *

The End.

I may continue this. I'm torn between just writing a prequel of sorts where I explore Bishop and Celine's relationship pre-Aidan or I write an actual sequel.


End file.
